FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, June 6, 2023
MEDIA CONTACT:
Bethany Khan: bkhan@culinaryunion226.org ▪ (702) 387-7088
Culinary Union announces that Ted Pappageorge and Diana Valles have been elected to lead as the organization continues its 88th year of fighting and winning for working families in Nevada
In an unopposed ballot, Culinary Union members have elected Ted Pappageorge as Secretary-Treasurer, Diana Valles as President, and Leain Vashon as Vice-President of the Culinary Union. New executive board and trustees have also been elected and sworn in.
Las Vegas, NV – The Culinary Workers Union Local 226 leadership have been democratically elected by Culinary Union members and were sworn in by UNITE HERE President D. Taylor on Thursday, June 1, 2023. In an unopposed ballot, champions for workers were elected by Culinary Union members to continue to lead the Culinary Union, the largest labor union in Nevada: Ted Pappageorge as Secretary-Treasurer, Diana Valles as President, and Leain Vashon as Vice-President of the Culinary Union. New executive board and trustees were also elected and are now installed. Culinary Union leadership is comprised of 3 elected officers, 10 executive board members, 3 trustees, and 1 chaplain. Culinary Union leaders are democratically elected by members every three years.
Culinary Union, which has been fighting and winning for working families in Nevada since 1935, is an essential economic institution and the strongest political force in the Battle Born State. The Culinary Union has won a middle-class standard of living for over 800,000 hospitality workers in 88 years through militant rank-and-file organizing and mass actions. Through organizing, hospitality worker membership has risen from 18,000 in 1987 to 60,000 members.
Secretary-Treasurer: Ted Pappageorge
President: Diana Valles
Vice-President: Leain Vashon (Bell captain, Paris Las Vegas)
Executive Board: Elena Newman (Guest room attendant, Mandalay Bay), Emma Loya (Guest room attendant, Caesars Palace), Febe Rodriguez (Guest room attendant, Bellagio), Jennifer Marshall (Food server, Paris Las Vegas), Kimberly Dopler (Cocktail server, Wynn Las Vegas), Mariano Minero (Houseperson, Bellagio), Stella Kalaoram (Guest room attendant, The Cosmopolitan), Victor Juarez (Cook, Circus Circus), Francisco Ruffino (Cook, Paris Las Vegas), and Charetzayda Gonzalez (Guest room attendant, Caesars Palace)
Trustees: Heidy Chan (Guest room attendant, The Rio), Holly Lang (Cocktail server, MGM Grand), and Jesus Navarro (Cook, The Mirage)
Chaplain: Gloria Hernandez (Frontier Striker)
“Diana and I are honored to be elected to continue to lead the Culinary Union as our union and working families continue to come back stronger,” said Ted Pappageorge, Secretary-Treasurer for the Culinary Union. “As a former bartender, I am proud to be a union member for 40 years. I’ve seen what workers can accomplish together and how Nevada has changed because our union has been militant about not allowing working families to be left behind. Working families in Nevada are resilient because of the strength and sacrifices made by generations of Culinary Union members who have come before us. In 2023, we are fighting for the best contract ever by making sure workers are not left behind as companies make record profits. We will continue to organize and grow to ensure that one job is enough for workers to provide for their families and thrive.”
“As a former guest room attendant, casino porter, and cook, I know how hard Culinary Union members work everyday and I will strive to continue ensuring workers are protected with fair wages, job security, and the best health benefits.” said Diana Valles, President of the Culinary Union. “I am so proud of our union because we do everything with our whole hearts. Our union fights everyday for members, the community, immigrants, and working families. The Culinary Union executive board is a reflection of membership and Nevadans, and we are united together to fight for and win a future where we all thrive.”
Ted Pappageorge is the Secretary-Treasurer (2022- present). He previously served as President (2012 - 2022) for the Culinary Workers Union Local 226.
Ted is a native of Las Vegas and has been a Culinary Union member since 1982. Ted worked as a Busboy at the Sands, Barback at the Sundance, and a Bartender at the Mint, Horseshoe Club, and Rivera Hotel. As a single father of two young children, he wanted to protect healthcare and job security for his family, so he got involved as a negotiating committee member and played a key role as a picket captain in the 9-month Horseshoe Strike in 1990.
After the Horseshoe Strike successfully ended, Ted had the opportunity to join the Culinary Union staff in 1991.
Ted spent the last 30 years organizing non-union and union workers who were fighting for respect and dignity at work. He has dedicated most of his life to developing worker leadership programs and building power inside workplaces with Culinary Union members on-the-job.
Ted has been negotiating collective bargaining agreements for over 20 years and is one of the chief negotiators for Culinary Union contracts that protect 60,000 workers. Ted’s goal is to secure good union wages, healthcare, and benefits for Culinary Union members and their families. In 2018, Ted helped win the strongest and most comprehensive technology, immigration, sexual harassment, and safety language in the history of any union in the United States.
Ted holds the following leadership positions: Vice President and Executive Committee Member of the UNITE HERE International Union, Trustee of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas, Trustee of the Culinary Pension Fund, Trustee of Culinary Health Fund, Trustee on the Culinary and Bartenders Housing Partnership Program, and Executive Committee Member of the Nevada State AFL-CIO.
Diana Valles is the President of the Culinary Workers Union Local 226 (2022- present). She is a proud immigrant who was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, she moved to Las Vegas in 1988 where she has been a member of the Culinary Union for 34 years. She worked as a Guest Room Attendant at the Stardust Casino and then the Las Vegas Hilton. Later she worked as a Casino Porter and then a Cook at the Flamingo.
As a single mother, her desire to obtain better working conditions for working families led her to become involved with the Culinary Union. She became a Shop Steward and Committee Leader when she was 20-years-old during a difficult contract fight at the Stardust Casino, where Diana was helping to organize her coworkers to go on strike if the company didn’t agree to a contract.
After taking an organizing leave-of-absence from the Flamingo with the Culinary Union, Diana became a full-time Organizer in 2004 and supported the organizing efforts of the successful Aladdin (now Planet Hollywood) organizing campaign. For over a decade, Diana was one of the Organizing Directors of the Station Casinos organizing campaign. Station Casinos is Nevada’s third largest private employer. With 6,000 workers, the Station Casinos organizing campaign is one of the nation’s largest private-sector organizing drives. Under Diana’s leadership, workers at Palace Station and Boulder Station voted by a majority to unionize in a National Labor Relations Board election.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Diana led the Culinary Union’s internal organizing division to protect workers from the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace, engage guest room attendants to fight and win increased workplace safety standards, encourage frontline essential workers to be fully vaccinated, advocate for the passage of innovative laws - SB4 (first and only in the nation COVID worker safety law) and SB386 (Right to Return), turn out Culinary Union members to vote in a historic 2020 presidential election, and comprehensively support working families every step of the way during the global crisis.
Diana is passionate about continuing to mentor and develop leaders so that workers can organize and win a better standard of living for their families.
Diana holds the following leadership positions: President of UNI Americas Gaming Division, Executive Committee Member of the Nevada State AFL-CIO, Vice-President of UNITE HERE International Union, and Trustee of the Culinary Academy of Las Vegas.
Leain Vashon is the Vice-President of the Culinary Union (2012-present). Leain is a Bell Captain at the Paris Las Vegas and has been a Culinary Union member for 45-years since 1975.
Leain was on strike during the 1984 Citywide Strike when more than 17,000 Culinary Union members from 32 Las Vegas Strip resorts went on strike alongside IATSE, Bartenders, Musicians Union. Culinary Union members won a contract victory after 53 days on strike, but workers stayed out another 2 weeks in solidarity with Musicians and IATSE for a total of 67 days. In one of the largest strikes in Las Vegas history, workers picketed for 67 days, 900 strikers were arrested over the course of the citywide strike.
Leain was working at MGM and walked the picket line during the Frontier Strike. The longest successful strike in the history of the United States, the Frontier Strike, which began September 21, 1991, ended after 6 years, 4 months, and 10 days on February 1, 1998. Over 550 workers maintained a 24/7 picket line and not one striker ever crossed the line. At the end of the strike, all the strikers were able to return back to work. The Culinary Union was able to negotiate that original workers were brought back to their jobs and workers were provided back pay and benefits.
Leain was one of the first Culinary Union shop stewards. Leain holds the following leadership positions: UNITE HERE Black Leadership Group and the Culinary Union Executive Board.
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ABOUT CULINARY UNION:
Culinary Workers Union Local 226 and Bartenders Union Local 165, Nevada affiliates of UNITE HERE, represent 60,000 workers in Las Vegas and Reno, including at most of the casino resorts on the Las Vegas Strip and in Downtown Las Vegas. UNITE HERE represents 300,000 workers in gaming, hotel, and food service industries in North America.
The Culinary Union, through the Culinary Health Fund, is one of the largest healthcare consumers in the state. The Culinary Health Fund is sponsored by the Culinary Union and Las Vegas-area employers. It provides health insurance coverage for over 145,000 Nevadans, the Culinary Union’s members and their dependents.
The Culinary Union is Nevada’s largest Latinx/Black/AAPI/immigrant organization with members who come from 178 countries and speak over 40 different languages. We are proud to have helped over 18,000 immigrants become American citizens and new voters since 2001 through our affiliate, The Citizenship Project.
The Culinary Union has a diverse membership which is 55% women and 45% immigrants. The demographics of Culinary Union members are approximately: 54% Latinx, 18% white, 15% Asian, 12% Black, and less than 1% Indigenous Peoples.
Culinary Union members work as: Guest room attendants, cocktail and food servers, porters, bellmen, cooks, bartenders, laundry and kitchen workers. The Culinary Union has been fighting for working families in Nevada for 87 years.
CulinaryUnion226.org / @Culinary226
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